Quarterback Buzz

Today the state is buzzing about the fact that Russell Wilson has signed to play with our Wisconsin Badgers Football Team for the 2011 season.

Head Coach Brett Bielema announced today that Wilson had committed to Wisconsin and will compete for the starting quarterback position. Before coming to Wisconsin, Wilson had played at NC State for three seasons.

To feed off the buzz surrounding this announcement, we thought we could highlight a quarterback from our collections who became a Badger legend, Ron Vander Kelen. Kelen was the quaterback for the 1962 Big Ten Championship football team and the MVP of the 1963 Rose Bowl.

The top image on the right is of Ron Vander Kelen as part of the 1962 football team. Under that is an image of him during the 1963 Rose Bowl game.

During this Rose Bowl game Ron Vander Kelen helped break the record for most first downs and lead a legendary comeback attempt in the fourth quarter. Although Wisconsin didn't win that game Kelen was awarded co-MVP and in 1991 was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.